How wind trubines kill bats

[BigInch]

"Sustaining" a species is feasible in theory, but seldom works in practice. River trout were declining in a western river, so US Fish & Wildlife got the bright idea to bring in trout to "sustain" the species. They brought in lake trout, who's favorite food just happens to be ... river trout, who's favorite food happened to be some kind of fly, now some fly population is up and the larve are eating the trees, increased runoff is dirting the water and lake trout are declining, so more and more must be brought in each year. Nature's plan is much more intricate than can usually be comprehended by mere mortals, let alone actually managed by them. We should stick to managing Wall Street and automobile companies. Those are the things we're really good at.

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"Pumping accounts for 20% of the world’s energy used by electric motors and 25-50% of the total electrical energy usage in certain industrial facilities."-DOE statistic (Note: Make that 99% for pipeline companies)

http://virtualpipeline.spaces.live.com/

 

[Sparweb]

Big Inch, JMW,

Thanks for your comments. I read the doubt and humour mixed together.

BI: It appears to be standard practice amongst those types of studies to normalize death rates attributable to one particular factor with all other known factors.

JMW: It isn't enough to simply post the numbers.

Good points, but what alternative do you propose? Of course they seem exaggerated! I'm not a wildlife zoologist, so I'm not well equipped to think critically about studies of bird populations, migration routes, death rates, predators, differential vulnerabilities between species, etc... but what choice do I have? I agree that every time someone with a vested interest produces a "study", the public is stuck either evaluating the results or accepting them wholesale.

My personal approach is to repeat these figures, with references, on a forum where there is a chance for some reasoned debate and see which way the wind blows.



Steven Fahey, CET

 

[TheTick]

Salmon were introduced into the Great Lakes in the 1960s to reduce the alewife (invasive baitfish) population. Now the alewife populatin has crashed (due to another invasive species), and the salmon are crashing as well. Also crashing is the multi-billion dollar salmon sportfishing industry.

So, now we need to maintain the population of an invasive species we tried to eliminate for the sake of an industry that would not have existed had the invasion never happened.